Are You Up To Speed On Soft Skills?

By Mary Verstraete

Research conducted by Harvard University, the Carnegie Foundation, and Stanford Research Center has concluded that 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft and people skills, and only 15% of job success comes from technical skills and knowledge (hard skills).

While soft skills are increasingly becoming the hard skills of today’s workforce, many people continue to come to organizations without them.

What makes it important? Skilled communicators get along well with colleagues, listen and understand instructions, and put their point across without being aggressive. They can change their style of communication to suit the task in hand, whether it's handling conflict or collaborating with a client. Good communicators should be able develop constructive working relationships with colleagues and be able to learn from constructive criticism.

Team Player

Have the ability to work with a team to achieve goals and have the qualities of being open, honest, and listen to others.

Did you know that this combination is sought after by companies like Google? Google recently commissioned a three-year study called Project Aristotle that attempted to determine the factors of a productive team. Findings were:

High-performing teams had high social sensitivity characterized by trust, mutual respect, and real connections.

Additional soft skills listed include:

Personal accountability

Teamwork

Negotiation skills

Conflict resolution

Flexibility

Problem solving

Interpersonal relations (mentoring, coaching, etc.)

Since soft skills are important for your personal fulfillment, professional development and success, the step of assessing your soft skills is an ideal place to begin identifying the areas that would be beneficial in your personal and professional development.

Next, take steps to fill the gap in your soft skills. Did you know that coach training is an ideal step in the direction of developing soft skills? A high standard of coach training will help you develop understanding of:

The nature and structure of a conversation to help you navigate in collaboration, conflict, and decision making situations.

Questions to avoid that will prevent rapport and defensiveness.

How to establish trust that creates an environment of openness and honest dialogue.

The tools to build team synergy that promote innovation.

Giving constructive feedback that is received with appreciation.

Values that envelope and create a compassionate, empathetic, sensitive, and a safe psychological space for conversation.

Key phrase in this suggestion is, "a high standard of in-depth coach training." As with any profession mastery is developed over time and is fostered through skilled trainers facilitating information, application, guidance, and investment in your personal and professional development.

Your future is important and pursing the development of your soft skills will serve you well in your future endeavors, not only professionally, but also personally.

Mary is a professional leadership consultant and coach. She works with ambitious business professionals who want to leverage their leadership.

As a business consultant, Mary works with organizations to establish a culture of synergistic teams, systems and processes for greater employee engagement, employee loyalty, and communication effectiveness.

Mary is President and Cofounder of the Center for Coaching Excellence, a distinctive training organization that focuses on developing highly competent coaches through a mentor-training approach and a training model of coaching that easily transitions into professional and personal conversations. She continues to expanded coaching into diverse industries by developing customized coach training used in companies such as ExxonMobil, Chevron, and MJ Senior Housing.